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Imperium of Man
The Imperium of Man also known as the Holy Human Imperium but is better known to the Allies as "Xenophobic Leader worshiping Cultist Assholes" or the "North Korea in Space" to the Axis as "Holy Corpse worshiping Empire" is a Civilization within the Warhammer Universe (originally known as the Fop'lla Universe), it ruled the Milky Way Galaxy and had countless ongoing wars with every species within the Galaxy which is now known as the Warhammer Wars, until they were invaded by the Empire of the Combine Race , they once thought that nothing can defeat them, but due to the Invasion, they soon joined the Alliance in order to survive it's War against the Combine and the Coalition of Independent States. History The Imperium was founded by the Emperor of Mankind, also called "The God-Emperor" and the "Master of Mankind", at the end of the Age of Strife, in the 30th Millennium AD. The Emperor, an immortal being born around the year 8000 BC in central Anatolia on Old Earth, was the collective reincarnation of all the human shamans who possessed true psychic abilities during the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages. Imbued with their combined psychic, physical and intellectual power, the Emperor was born an immortal being of unparalleled physical strength, psychic ability, charisma and intellect. The Emperor helped humanity as a whole survive and prosper through the long millennia. In various eras of human history he intervened through various personas, some of them well-known historical personages, to guide Mankind, though such interventions were always brief and shrouded in legend and historical mystery. At the end of the Age of Strife the man who would become the Emperor finally took a direct, public, and permanent role in shaping the future of humanity, believing that the damage done to the human race by 5,000 years of terror, isolation and violence could not be reversed unless he openly guided humanity as its leader. As such, he shed all his prior identities and simply revealed himself in the 30th Millennium on Terra as the Emperor of Mankind, determined to unite the entire species under his stern but benevolent rule and replace superstition, fear, poverty and intolerance with reason, science, progress and hope. The Age of Strife, also sometimes called Old Night, was a 5,000-year-long period of anarchy, war, and destructive technological regression from the 25th to the 30th Millenniums that brought Mankind to the brink of extinction -- and reversed the highly advanced scientific and technological discoveries made by the galaxy-spanning interstellar human civilisation of the Dark Age of Technology that had preceded it. The Age of Strife was caused by the negative psychic and physical effects of the vicious Warp Storms that ravaged large portions of the galaxy beginning in the 25th Millennium, which were the "ripples" in realspace of the psychic gestation of the new Chaos God Slaanesh in the Immaterium. Slaanesh was forming within the Warp as a result of the growing hedonism and utter excess of the ancient Eldar empire in the millennia before its Fall. One result of the Warp Storms was the impossibility of faster-than-light travel or telepathic interstellar communication through the ravaged currents of the Warp, which led to the subsequent isolation of human colony worlds and star systems separated by multi-light-year distances. Human civilisation in the colonised portions of the galaxy fragmented, and where it survived, it took on wildly different forms. On Earth, the planetary economy collapsed with the loss of interstellar trade and communication with the rest of humanity and the social order broke down. Wars, rebellion, and disease were rampant. Vast swathes of the advanced scientific and technical knowledge accumulated in the previous millennia was lost or forgotten, and a slow descent into barbarism seemed inevitable. Brutal warlords emerged, who carved out new kingdoms to serve as their fiefdoms. The emergence of these often brutal neo-feudal kingdoms, the new nations of the people later termed "techno-barbarians" by Imperial historians, imposed an uneasy peace on the Earth that was frequently interrupted by feudal conflicts. The human race seemed on the brink of extinction at the start of the 30th Millennium, when the man who would become known as the Emperor of Mankind once more inserted himself into the affairs of humanity. Great Crusade (6776 - 6570 BNE) The Emperor sensed that the Warp Storms that had marked the Age of Strife were starting to subside, and that this offered an opportunity for Mankind to reunite in pursuit of a new Golden Age. The Emperor first emerged to unify all the techno-barbarian states of Terra under his rule through either diplomacy or the waging of the brutal military campaigns later called the Unification Wars against the techno-barbarians tribes that ruled vast swathes of the Earth's surface. These wars were waged with soldiers who had been genetically-engineered by the Emperor's genius to be faster and stronger than base-line humans. Such warriors would provide the early foundation from which he would later decide to create the Primarchs and and the Space Marines. After conquering the last of the independent techno-barbarian states of Terra, the Emperor also secured the allegiance of the Cult Mechanicus of Mars who controlled the most advanced remaining industrial fabrication and scientific research facilities in the human-settled galaxy and the scientific research installations and spacedocks of Luna. These three factions, Terra, Mars and Luna, signed the Treaty of Mars that created a new government, the Imperium of Man, marrying the Terran military might of the Emperor with the industrial strength of Mars and the Mechanicus. Now possessed of the needed manpower and materiel to make his dream a reality, the Emperor mobilised the resources of Terra and Mars to launch a vast new military campaign intended to reunite the whole of Mankind, dispersed across the galaxy, under his rule. This campaign, the Great Crusade, marked the beginning of the period that would be known as the Age of the Imperium. A vast fleet of starships was built in orbit of Mars, with which the Emperor's armies set out to reconquer the galaxy for Mankind. But to lead his campaign, the Emperor had used his advanced knowledge of genetic engineering and the psychic arts to create the Primarchs, 20 superhuman military commanders possessed of preternatural physical, mental and social attribtues who had been created through the fusion of his genetic material with the power of the Warp. The Emperor had known that the greatest foe of his plans to reunite the human race and bring Order to the galaxy would be the Ruinous Powers of Chaos and their daemonic servants. He had sought to protect his gestating Primarchs from the Dark Gods while they grew in their gestation capsules in the Emperor's secret laboratories deep beneath the Himalayan Mountains, but the Chaos Gods saw through all his wards and protections. They opened a Warp portal in the Emperor's laboratory and stole the infant Primarchs away from Terra, scattering them across the galaxy and tainting many of them with the power of Chaos. But the Emperor would not be deterred by this tragedy. Using what remained of the Primarchs' genetic material, he proceeded to transform ordinary Terran men into a new corps of superhuman warriors who would lead Mankind back out into the stellar void. These men were the Emperor's Astartes, the Space Marine Legions, and they were men who knew no fear. During the 200 years that the Great Crusade spread the Imperium across the galaxy, the Emperor slowly made contact once more with all of his scattered gene-sons, the Primarchs, and to each he gave command of the Space Marine Legion that had been created from that Primarch's specific genome. Horus was the first of the Primarchs to be rediscovered, on the barren Mining World of Cthonia only a few light years from Terra itself. Horus campaigned with the Emperor for 30 Terran years before the next of the Primarchs was recovered, and during that time the two developed a special bond, the deep affection between a father and his favoured son. The Astartes Legions, combined with the might of the Imperial Army (which was later separated into the Imperial Guard and the Imperial Navy after the Horus Heresy), reunited thousands upon thousands of human worlds into one interstellar civilisation, in the name, and under the rule of, the Emperor and the Imperium of Man. But the Great Crusade was ended abruptly by the corruption and treachery of the Imperial Warmaster Horus, who was both the Primarch of the Sons of Horus Space Marine Legion and the overall commander of the Great Crusade, an honour that had been granted to him by the Emperor, who had sought to leave the campaign so that he might return to Terra and oversee a project intended to open up the Eldar Webway to human use. But Horus and many of the other Primarchs deeply resented the Emperor's absence from the Great Crusade and were even more disturbed by his attempts to replace the direct rule of the Imperium by the Emperor and his Primarchs with a bureaucracy of normal humans. Riven by jealousy and ambition, Horus proved to be easy prey for the tempations of the Chaos Gods, who falsely convinced the Warmaster that the Emperor had intended all along to simply use the Primarchs and the rest of humanity to transform himself into a God. Enraged at this notion, the Ruinous Powers then promised Horus their support in his bid to seize the Imperium for himself. Horus ultimately convinced 9 other Primarchs and their Space Marine Legions to join his cause and serve Chaos. He instigated the terrible Horus Heresy rebellion against the Emperor and eventually one-half of the Imperium's vast military forces, as well as elements of the Adeptus Mechanicus, rallied to the Traitor's cause, unleashing the greatest conflict Mankind had ever known upon an unsuspecting galaxy. First encounter with the Combines and the near destruction of the Imperium (6569 BNE - 1426 NE) During the Horus Heresy, both sides, the Traitors and Loyalists, uncovered evidence that an unknown xenos species was sending spies to infiltrate and weaken the Imperium of Man and escalate the conflict between both sides. The xenos had successfully infiltrated many Adeptus Mechanicus outposts, Governor offices, and parts of the Astra Miltarum. While the loyalists dismissed these claims as unrelated xenos activity, and the Traitors claimed these as attacks against the Imperium's command, investigation by the Adeptus Arbites, Emperor's spies and the Raven Guard legion, led by Corvus Corax himself, revealed that these xenos shared the same species, but heavily modified with numerous cybernetics, and claimed allegiance to "The Combine Empire and its' Emperor". However, as more pressing matters arose, such as the incoming Siege of Terra, no further investigation was conducted. As the orbital conflict began, A third army arrived, from a swirling blue vortex. The traitors and loyalists both thought that these were their reinforcements. This hope was quickly dispelled when the new force, a massive Combine fleet, opened fire on both sides. Horus Lupercal, war master of Chaos, at the behest of his dark patrons, moved through the dimensional portal. The Emperor however, chose to stay and to fight these new Xenos. The ensuing Orbital Battle was long and bloody, with the battered, but still standing Imperial forces clashed against the Combine Fleet. With the leadership of Rogal Dorn, Sanguinius and the Emperor Himself, and the subtle aid of the Craftworld Eldar, the Combine were driven back but barely. Once the battle ended, the Emperor ordered any and all knowledge of these xenos be a alpha prioris, Imperial term for priority one, with the Imperium's entire intelligence putting nearly their entire effort into what this new xeno species that nearly captured Terra. Instead, the Imperium's intelligence services found nothing involving them, even with going so far as to look into various xeno histories to do so. What's more worrying was the manner in which this new species appeared, namely through a strange blue vortex unrelated to the warp itself. So, the intelligence services of the Imperium, seeing no other possible intel or evidence of their existence in their universe, brought a theory to the Emperor, whom did not enjoy this outcome. However, he did listen to them, as they presented their theory involving this new xeno species, one that prove to be a correct assumption in the millennium to come. Corax, who lead the majority of the investigation and intelligence gathering, gave the Emperor their theory, and their assumption that the xenos are from another universe entirely. This concept unnerved the Emperor, as it would mean that these xenos could be a grave threat to the Imperium, no, the universe as a whole, if they can travel from one to another. But at the same time, the lack of concrete evidence made the theory hard to accept, or believe. In fact most of the remaining loyalist Primarchs also doubted the findings, most finding the concept of an interdimensional xeno species absurd. But Vulkan believed Corax's theory to be correct in some manner and urged his brothers to prepare the Imperium for the Combine's inevitable return. To which only a few actually followed through, even if they were still skeptical of the claim. Vulkan's assumption proved correct in the eight months that followed, the Combines did return, and this time with a much larger force, one that was said to be a seemingly endless horde of dark metal ships, robotic-like soldiers of various species, and armies that prove too much to deal with even for the Forces of Chaos. The first thing this massive armada did was assault Terra once more, and unlike last time, the innumerable fleets of ships almost wiped out the fleet defending the planet and launched a massive invasion of the planet, turning the homeworld into a warzone with military and civilian were killed indiscriminately, with the defenders pushed to their breaking points. That was until the last remaining loyal space marine legions arrived and provided aid with whatever ships the Imperium could muster and gave the Imperium a chance to force the invaders off world. The fight lasted for years with deaths reaching into the billions but the Imperium managed to force the Combine off-world and out of the sol system once more but at a cost. The Emperor was mortally wounded by the assault, and prevent him from dying was forced onto life support that became known as the Golden Throne of Terra in the centuries to come. While the Battle of Terra waged, the Imperium was losing territory to the new invaders with each passing month, with defeat after defeat becoming a common theme in nearly all Imperial engagements with the invading Combines. The entire galaxy was slowly being conquered, one planet at a time, no matter how brutal or destructive the battle was, how many losses the Combine had, it didn't matter as the massive force had such numbers that losing trillions on one planet meant little other than the planet's conquest. But once the Battle of Terra ended, the Imperium began a gruelingly slow campaign to liberate their empire from the Combine's forces. With battles lasting years and billions killed repeatedly but resulted in Imperial victories, pyrrhic as they may be. Within a thousand years, a thousand years of constant, grueling, destructive and bloody warfare, half of the Imperium was recaptured. However, that was when the campaign staled, and while the Imperium managed to split the Combines forces in half, the rest of the galaxy was still under their control and the assaults to take the planets back proved nearly impossible, but so was the Combines attempts to expand, turning the entire war into a massive stalemate that would last for the next four thousand years, four thousand years of bloodshed and conflict the likes of which the galaxy had never seen. First Multiverse War (1426 - 2358 NE) The Final Days of the First Multiverse War (2358 - 2373 NE) Chaos Wars The New Crusade Joining the Imperialist Alliance Second Multiverse War Final days of the Imperium Dissolvement of the Imperium Government The Imperium of Man is a totalitarian dictatorship and a feudalistic theocracy with some signs of a techno-religious society, ancient Rome, and medieval Europe. The Emperor originally served the head of state, leaving the High Lords of Terra to run the Imperium in his absence. After the First Multiverse War the Emperor was killed, and the power smoothly transitioned to The High Lords Of Terra. Culture According to Alliance records, the Imperium's culture is mostly based off of Ancient Rome and Feudal Europe, due to the fact that their architechture appears to be similar to that of medieval tradition. Low Gothic is the common tongue of the Imperium, spoken on most Imperial planets as a first or second language. Imperial worlds have inevitably developed their own, often highly variant, dialects of Low Gothic over time. High Gothic (represented as a form of Latinised English) dates from the last time humanity was united across interstellar distances in an ancient confederation that existed during the Dark Age of Technology (long before the Age of the Imperium), and is used solely as a hieratic tongue by the divisions of the Adeptus Terra, the Inquisition and the Ecclesiarchy. Low Gothic (also called Imperial Gothic or simply Gothic) is the “official” language of the Imperium, the everyday tongue of its Adepts and of Terra. Most worlds have been a part of the Imperium for long enough to have adopted Low Gothic as a universal tongue but there are still a great many Feral Worlds on which Imperial Gothic is not spoken. Inevitably, dialects of Gothic differ from world to world and can be mutually unintelligible. Older planets frequently maintain archaic tongues of their own, to the extent that ruling aristocracies might only know enough Low Gothic to be sworn into their Imperial offices. For highly formal matters, the Adeptus Terra use High Gothic, the precursor language of Imperial Gothic. Many Ecclesiarchy rituals, Administratum edicts and Imperial charters use this ancient and venerable language. Religion The Imperial Cult is one of the few common factors that link the disparate worlds of the Imperium together. No matter what conditions prevail upon a world within the Imperium, the Imperial Cult will be found there. The ways in which the Emperor is worshipped in human space are multitudinous. To some He is revered as a distant, patriarchal and human figure. Others identify Him with some aspect of nature, many others, such as the primitive Epheisians of Dwimlicht, regard Him as a Star God, for His agents only visit occasionally and they descend from the heavens when they do so. But all the creeds of the Cult agree upon this one thing: there is only one Emperor. To worship a pantheon of Gods and put other Gods alongside Him is heresy. However, there have been many individuals over the millennia who have been seen as His saints, people visibly touched by the Emperor, and they are venerated all over the Imperium. There are saints for every aspect of life and there is a thriving trade in their relics on many worlds. The worship of the God-Emperor is, in the main, highly organised across the Imperium. Cathedral complexes can be found in the capitals of all worlds of any meaningful populations. On the densely populated, teeming hive worlds, these can occupy entire spires. The graceful structure of the Cathedral of the Emperor Triumphant, constructed after the Second War for Armageddon at Hive Primus on Armageddon, climbs delicately skyward, its main tower nearly a full kilometre in height. The statue of the Emperor at the top brushes the planet's troposphere, looking benignly down upon the seething, polluted Hive World below. Most towns will have a church or temple dedicated to the Emperor and even the crudest village of the most primitive tribesman will sport a sacred cave or grove dedicated to his name. Of course, in some places, the worship of the Emperor supercedes all other aspects of life—these are the Shrine Worlds of the Imperium, where perhaps one of the great saints, or even, in the distant past, the Emperor Himself, performed a great deed. These planets can be one, vast, religious complex, or huge cemetery worlds such as Granithor, where the wealthy spend vast fortunes bringing the dead scions of their families for burial, usually those who have perished in the service of the Emperor. Then there are the Cardinal Worlds, which attract millions of pilgrims and are the strongholds of the Cult. These planets are directly governed by the Ecclesiarchy and are the seats of functionaries high in the Cult, responsible for the spiritual health of vast areas of human space. The Ecclesiarchy maintains and promotes the Cult galaxy-wide and, where possible, tries to sanction the worship of the Emperor no matter how bizarre it may seem. Very few practices are proscribed, and even such abominations as human sacrifice to the Emperor are useful to the Imperium, for it is easy to convince a newly encountered culture that approves of such custom to give up its psykers to the Black Ships. One of the Ecclesiarchy’s tasks is to record this multiplicity of tradition with which the Emperor is honoured. In that way, two Preachers from opposite sides of the galaxy will know, no matter what their title or manner of expressing their devotion might be, that neither is a heretic. The Ecclesiarchy sends out mission fleets for precisely this purpose, whose flotillas of blessed spacecraft slowly circle a particular part of the galaxy, recording new variants of the Cult, correcting serious heresies and proselytising to newly discovered populations of humans. To all, the Emperor is a living God. He may be tens of thousands of light years away, but that He exists, the inhabitants of the Imperium know, so faith is an easier thing in the 41st Millennium than it has been at other times in human history. Some amongst the Ecclesiarchy and Inquisition may argue that men should be more ardent in their devotion to Him, but though some may be lax in their adulation and may blaspheme or heretically curse the Master of Mankind for their lot, it is nevertheless rare to meet a man who would dare to deny the Emperor’s divinity. The Ecclesiarchy presides over the souls of the Imperium’s citizens, dividing its countless dioceses into parishes, some of which are centred upon a particular planet, others focused to tending to a particular locale or holy shrine. Each parish is ministered by a priest called a Preacher, seeing to the well-being and purity of his flock’s souls. It is their duty to watch for deviancy and ensure that heretical belief is purged wherever it lurks. A truly pious Preacher may rise to become a Pontifex, whose authority extends over several parishes and their Preachers. The responsibilities of a Pontifex are diverse and can encompass the protection and ministration of routes of pilgrimage, the consideration of beatitudes and recommendation of canonisation to the holy synods. The priests called Confessors are the booming voices of the Ecclesiarchy, exalting the faithful to deeds of penitence, fervour and righteousness. Confessors are not charged with the ministrations of a diocese, but rather roam the Imperium at-will wherever the hand of the God-Emperor calls them. Under the spell of a Confessor a city can burn at the hands of its own citizens, armies may jubilantly throw themselves into the waiting guns of an enemies’ hands and heretics flee, fearing their holy wrath. Relations with other civilizations Category:Factions Category:Allies Category:Imperialist Category:Vorchan Civil War Category:Defunct factions Category:Fascist States Category:Monarchies Category:Theocracies